Márquez emerges Aragón victor

The young Spaniard took his seventh intermediate class win in a thrilling battle at the Gran Premio de Aragón on Sunday, with Andrea Iannone second and Simone Corsi third.

Pole starter Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) took the hole shot off the start with Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) and Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) immediately challenging for the lead, with Redding taking over at the front by the end of lap one.

By lap four Bradl led the race while Iannone (Speed Master) made his way up to the lead pack off a tenth place start, along with Corsi (Ioda Racing Project) and Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2), which began a breathtaking five way fight for first position, with Márquez finally breaking from the pack on lap 13, but not without Iannone making it very difficult for the Spaniard to get away.

The fight for second then commenced, with Iannone crossing the line a tenth of a second ahead of fellow countryman Corsi, while de Angelis followed by half a second to take fourth. Aleix Espargaró (Pons HP 40) was fifth ahead of Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Racing), while Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) made a great comeback to take seventh, after dropping down into 16th position on lap 8.

Bradl dropped out of the leading pack on lap 16 with apparent mechanical issues to finish the race in eighth, the lower than expected finish hurting the German rider’s Championship lead with the gap to Márquez now just 6 points.

Ninth place went to Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP) after a video image was required to determine his position in front of Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing) in tenth, the two crossing the line so closely it appeared simultaneous.

Redding crossed the line in 15th after dropping out of the lead group on lap 9 and quickly losing even more ground the last two laps.